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Fantasy Cycling: Spring Classics review

The Classics season is over, so let's see who made the podium in fantasy land.....

The classics were a hard bunch of races to predict, it turned out. The Amstel Gold Race was the hardest of all, with over 1,000 teams failing to score a single point as the pre-race favourites finished anonymously in the pack. Over the seven races there has to be a winner though, so let's have a look and see who's come up trumps.

First of all, a quick look at the two races we haven't covered so far. Wednesday's Flèche Wallone saw Joaquin Rodriguez take the top podium slot ahead of GreenEdge's Michael Albasini and the coming-back-to form Phillipe Gilbert. At the top of the stage table Carry on up the Colombier and (max 30 characters) tied for the win on 154 points apiece, albeit with different teams. Both picked J-Rod though, and both had seven scoring riders. That meant that the win came down to who'd used the fewest transfers in the competition up to that point, so Tim Print's chopping and changing in the unlimited windows (66 transfers) was his undoing against widgetkicker (34 transfers) who takes the prize.

We did have an outright winner for Liège - Bastogne - Liège though. Flandrian correctly predicted the 1-2-3 of Maxim Iglinsky, Vincenzo Nibali and Enrico Gasparotto to post an unassailable 142 on the day, just one point ahead of Bandar Bandit.

So, to the overall competition. Pangbourne Pedallers hit the front with one race to go but their selections for Liège let them down a bit, netting just 69 points. That meant that 99 points from hannahs hurricanes was enough to move them three places up to the top spot to take the win, with Pangbourne Pedallers dropping to second. A massive 132-point haul from norfolkandchance on the last day sent them soaring 26 places into third. Biggest loser of the day was TEAM JAMESWEBB79, who managed only 22 for the final stage and dropped from second to 16th equal. Still, there's always the Giro.

In the purists there were some impressive scores. None more impressive than Chicken Dinner, who not only topped out with 539 points but did so without making any transfers in the unlimited windows before Gent-Wevelgem and the Amstel Gold Race. Very impressive. Pukey Otter rolled in second, and Chippy's Cyclistas were third. Here's a rundown of all the winners from the classics:

Milan San Remo: chrisgnewman
Gent-Wevelgem: letsgoup
Tour of Flanders: stewart
Paris-Roubaix: marlynn
Amstel Gold Race: road ronin
Flèche Wallone: widgetkicker
Liège - Bastogne - Liège: Flandrian
Classics: overall: boltsy74
Classics 2nd: londonplayer
Classics 3rd: noddy69
Classics purist: Liam Glen

Next up is the first grand tour, the Giro d'Italia, which starts in two weeks time. Stay tuned for updates!

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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8 comments

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chrisgnewman | 11 years ago
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awesome! is there a price for winning milan-san remo???

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keith roberts | 11 years ago
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tried hard..just not as good as you guys....yet! up to 8th at one point,the fleche and l-b-l mean i ended up 75th i think, still pleased though bring on the classics!  4

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road ronin | 11 years ago
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never took much notice of the prizes for the spring classics just enjoyed playng the game, anyone know what the prizes are ???  39  39

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road ronin | 11 years ago
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 7 well pleased with the amstel win  4
im usally terrable at the fantasy game always change before the rider comes good and scores top points

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londonplayer | 11 years ago
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@20thebear - off to the GP now for blood pressure check-up.....  4

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noddy69 | 11 years ago
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Brill didnt know there was a third prize so thats a bonus for something I would do with or without prizes. Excelent game guys thanks for the time and effort ye put in......now as for not minding about prizes,what is for third  1

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20thebear | 11 years ago
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Tom i'm not sure your stress levels can take a grand tour.

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londonplayer | 11 years ago
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What can I say except GUTTED!  20

Bring on the Giro!

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